Hot summer puts strain on supermarkets

BALTIMORE (WPRI) -- With drought conditions in the Midwest pushing food prices higher nationwide, shoppers aren't the only ones looking to save money.

You may think you have a lot of mouths to feed when it comes to providing for your family, but imagine having to buy food for a large grocery store. Although, many could actually learn from the strategies used by those stores, just on a much smaller scale.

This summer has been tough on American households when it comes to food and energy costs, and those costs are even greater for a 27,000-square foot supermarket.

Baltimore's Bel-Garden Bi-Rite has been locally owned and operated for almost 50 years.

Raising prices isn't the owner's favorite option, but Sandy Vary says she knows her customers are watching costs too. She got together with energy consultant BJ Elliott to look into the cold hard cash being spent on vents pumping cold air into the store.

"We identified a couple of key areas or opportunities to improve in this store," she said. "One of them was her general overall energy consumption, and the other was a problem with humidity."

The store traded a 20-ton air conditioning unit for a new system that uses salt water to cool air and suck out humidity. Vary can keep the overall temperature of the store higher, and leave it cool where it counts, like in the frozen food cases. With less humidity, some foods stay fresher longer.

"Especially our perishable items, our meat items, and our produce items, and that has really helped us in keeping our margins where they need to be in order to stay in business," she added.

Vary estimates she'll save up to $35,000 in energy costs this year, keeping store prices lower, and a little more green in her customers' wallets.